Clare Daly (GUE/NGL). – Madam President, I think the EU strategy on Africa can be loosely summed up as a lot of very nice soft language – we talk about empowerment, we talk about development, we talk about equality – but really in many ways they are just a figleaf for the imposition of neoliberal globalisation. We see it in many of the trade arrangements, where the least-developed countries in the ACP lose their non-reciprocal tariff exemptions and preferences, but meanwhile European, particularly the agricultural file and so on, keeps its protectionist mechanisms that we have adopted for ourselves.
I think that neoliberal trade agreements aren’t the only feature of an unbalanced EU-Africa relationship. I think of particular concern is the growing military presence in that area, particularly in the Sahel, led by the French, backing up as a permanent aid to dictators in that region in order to try and support their French interests in raw materials and cheap labour. That isn’t good enough when we’re talking about equality.